The granddaughter of Michael Curtiz was unsuccessful in her search for footage of her grandfather winning the Best Director Oscar in 1944 for “Casablanca.” But, interested in any memento of the grandfather she never knew, she was happy when UCLA alumna, and now curator of the Academy Awards show footage, Heather Sabin was able to […]
Author Archives: Brian Segna
Holy Smoke
He’s not unlike an extremely specialized botanist. But with an expertise so acute that it spans just one plant. And his work is not dissimilar from that of a devout missionary. But with a mission far larger than that of any neighborhood priest. It is this hybrid of pseudo-botany and alternative ministry that landed cannabis […]
Screen Scene: The Italian
“The Italian” Director Andrei Kravchuk Sony Pictures Classiscs Andrei Kravchuk spent over a year scouring orphanages across Russia in search of the troubled environment needed to be true to the stories he had seen and read about. He handpicked real-life orphans for most of his film’s cast. And he even met with the real-life families […]
The many faces of Nikki S. Lee
Who is Nikki S. Lee? The South Korean-born performance artist and 1999 graduate of New York University has become internationally known for her galleries of photographs which feature her under the guise of a variety of identities. And spectators all over the world wonder who she really is. Tonight, the mystery continues as the UCLA […]
Video iPod stores potential
Wouldn’t it be nice if they made a portable device that could store and play, say, every episode of the TV show “Lost?” Technically, they have. And millions of Americans can already watch “Lost,” “Top Chef,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and even selected full-length feature films, on what Amazon.com calls the best-selling electronic device currently on the […]
An animating alumna
A room full of pencil-wielding toddlers or teenagers with the hopes of being animators may sound like a disappointment waiting to happen. But thanks to Maija Burnett, dreams like those are being fulfilled on a regular basis. The 2005 graduate of the UCLA Masters of Fine Arts in Animation program is now teaching animation workshops […]
Unforgettable film
If you ever have the opportunity to engage in conversation with Howard Suber, listen very carefully to what he says. Then go home and forget everything he told you. Seriously, he would want you to. After all, that is exactly what the 65-year-old UCLA film and television professor and author of the recently released book, […]